MOSCOW, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The joint Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2021 military drills ended Wednesday with a closing ceremony at the Mulino training ground in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"The Zapad-2021 exercise has demonstrated that we can quickly form effective interspecific groupings of forces, plan military action in all directions, suppress any kind of aggression, and can strike a decisive blow to counter any enemy," the ministry said, citing Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Lieutenant General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
The minister added that military personnel that took part in the drills demonstrated the skills they acquired during scheduled combat training sessions in the course of the year.
Russian forces from the Western Military District took part in the training, alongside military contingents of the Armenian, Belarusian, Indian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Mongolian armed forces, as well as a representative from the Sri-Lankan military delegation.
The joint drills were held at nine training grounds in Russia, as well as the Baltic Sea, and at five training grounds in Belarus. In total, 200,000 personnel, about 80 aircraft and helicopters, 760 units of military equipment, and 15 ships took part in the training. Enditem
